‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ Failed Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes

Disney+’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier should have been for me. Much like my colleague Brett White found a confluence of his life’s passions onscreen in WandaVision, I should have felt somewhat seen by Marvel’s second Disney+ live action show. I’m a hardcore Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) fan, a lover of Anthony Mackie‘s smoothly charismatic take on Sam Wilson, and the prodigal daughter of a military family. Oh, and I love odd couples. So yeah, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier should have been for me.

Now that the dust has settled on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier‘s first (and only?) season, I have to ask, “What the hell was that?” It was a frenetic mess full of plot holes, overly pious conversations, and circular logic. Worst of all, at its best, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier did nothing for the legacy of its eponymous characters. The figures best served by the series were Baron Zemo (Daniel Brühl) and John Walker (Wyatt Russell). The former launched the show’s most successful meme, and the latter got to be an all-too-human disaster. So much so, I’m less enthused by the prospect of a Captain America 4 starring Sam Wilson as the Star-Spangled Man with a Plan than I am curious to see where this ragtag group of anti-heroes the MCU is setting up is going. That shouldn’t be how I feel though!

I wish Disney+’s The Falcon and The Winter Soldier had been about the Falcon and the Winter Soldier!

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier takes place six months after the events of Avengers: Endgame. In that film, our heroes finally managed to undo the damage of Thanos’s snap, but at great cost. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) both sacrificed their lives for the greater good, while the MCU’s most stalwart hero indulged in some selfish timeline hopping. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), the original Captain America, didn’t just return the Mind Stone to the 1970s. He stayed there, choosing to live out a quiet life with soul mate Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). The last we see of Rogers, he is an old man gifting both his shield and his legacy to friend Sam Wilson.

However The Falcon and The Winter Soldier opens with Sam rejecting the weight of such a promotion. Overwhelmed by Steve’s legacy (and clearly conflicted over America’s troubled history of racism), Sam donates the shield to the Smithsonian. Bucky Barnes is incensed. He sees the decision as an affront to Steve’s judgment. Soon Bucky’s frustration seems justified as the U.S. Government quickly names a new Captain America: the blond-haired, blue-eyed, dyed-in-the-wool military man John Walker.

Although this basically sets Sam up eventually to wind up where Avengers: Endgame left him — as the next Captain America — there were hints of a fascinating character journey here. Unfortunately, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier botched it all. Its focus was never strictly on the soul of Sam Wilson, or even his tetchy relationship with Bucky Barnes. No, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier darted its attention around like a cat following a laser pointer. The show wanted to deal with the dark legacy of systemic racism in the military, the traumatic fallout of the “Blip,” the frustrations of John Walker, the Machiavellian philosophy of Baron Zemo, the fate of Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), and most of all, the righteous (or not? or yes?) cause of the Flag-Smashers, led by Karli Morganthau (Erin Kellyman).

The first episode of the series might have opened on a thrilling display of aerial derring do by The Falcon, but every episode after seemed to tee up its hero moment for a different character. Karli Morganthau got to be a Gen Z Joan of Arc. Baron Zemo a shockingly sympathetic villain. The Dora Milaje was depicted as a fighting team that greatly outclassed the male warriors of the series. And John Walker emerged as the show’s most bizarrely compelling character? (I know a lot of people rejected his hasty redemption arc, but Wyatt Russell nails Walker’s rare mix of guilt, rage, and sheer horror at being rejected by the military that created him.)

All this would be fine, I guess, if the show hadn’t been sold to us as literally “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.” We were promised that these characters would have room to breathe in a way the MCU’s big tentpole flicks didn’t allow them. And indeed, the pair’s most electric moments came when they had time to play off of each other in low stakes settings. Repairing the Wilson family boat, arguing about the Big Three, mocking their mutual least fave John Walker…these were the moments where the show almost came together. But they were fleeting. More time was spent trying to explain the serpentine logic of the plot (which never came together) than with the Falcon and the Winter Soldier as people.

Going into The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, much was made of Mackie and Stan’s chemistry together. EW.com positioned a whole digital cover depicting them as the MCU’s “Odd Couple” and Kevin Feige said the inspiration for the show came from watching their on-set banter during the filming of Captain America: Civil War. Ultimately that chemistry was shoved to the side in favor of showing off Marvel Easter eggs and introducing future storylines. This wasn’t the buddy action comedy they deserved but a slog through comic book trivia.

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier failed Sam and Bucky. Hopefully Tom Hiddleston’s irrepressible ability to devour the scenery prevents a similar fate from befalling his beloved MCU character in Disney+’s next big Marvel series, Loki. Because I can’t do this again.

Where to stream The Falcon and The Winter Soldier